The film is based on two original British steamships, the SS Sirius and the SS Great Western. The former was built in 1837 and was serving the London-Cork line until the quest for steam-crossing the Atlantic took her on this adventure. She had condensers which worked with fresh water, allowing less maintenance and quicker journeys. She sailed from Cork and arrived in New York on April 22nd. 1838 after an 18-day trip, only a day ahead of the SS Great Western, which had been specially built for the Atlantic steam crossing but left England (Avonmouth, near Bristol) four days later (she was faster, but left later). In the film the Sirius, a working replica of which was built, is re-named Dog Star (as Sirius is the dog star), but keeps her original Royal Navy captain's name (Lt. Richard Roberts).
The SS Savannah, an American ship, had been the first one to cross the Atlantic in 1819 from Savannah to Liverpool, only partially using steam power and with no passengers daring to embark considering it too dangerous.
One of over 700 Paramount Productions, filmed between 1929 and 1949, which were sold to MCA/Universal in 1958 for television distribution, and have been owned and controlled by Universal ever since; its earliest documented telecast took place in Seattle Friday 17 April 1959 on KIRO (Channel 7).
If you like this picture. you'll also enjoy "Little Old New York" (1940) with Richard Greene, Fred MacMurray and Alice Faye. It tells an earlier story (about steamboat inventor Robert Fulton) and it was made later than this one, with an equally good production design.
According to Quentin Falk, Margaret Lockwood's shipboard scenes, shot off the coast of California, had to be scrapped and re-shot in studio against background projection because of Lockwood's violent sea sickness.
Final film of Jane Dewey.